Monday tube and rail services hit by long delays

Tens
of thousands of mainline South West Trains (SWT)commuters into
Waterloo suffered an horrendous start to the week as two separate lots of
over-running engineering work and a signal failure caused major delays.

Some
trains were cancelled and replaced by buses and others diverted.

Trains
were halted on the main Portsmouth route into London between Guildford and
Woking; some services were diverted via Cobham & Stoke D'Abernon. There was
a bus replacement service between Guildford and Woking.

The
line reopened around 7 am but knock-on delays continued.

Disruption followed
a late finish to Network Rail engineering work on a bridge.

At
the same time there was also a late finish to engineering work on the busy
commuter route between Strawberry Hill and Barnes via Twickenham. This was
completed by 6.30 am but again resulted in knock-on delays.

The
third problem - a power failure followed by a signal breakdown - disrupted
long-distance services from Exeter St Davids via Salisbury and
Woking into Waterloo.

A
Network Rail spokesman said: "We really do apologise for the problems
suffered by passengers this morning.

"There
was a programme of major engineering work between Guildford and Woking on a
bridge and we were late finishing. We restored a normal service as quickly as
we could but this did result in some knock-on delays.

"A
full service was restored between Barnes and Strawberry Hill shortly after 6 am
but again there were knock-on delays.

"We
are still investigating the cause of the signal problem on the main route
between London and the West of England. There was an earlier power failure and
a later signal problem."

First
Capital Connect (FCC) services from Bedford into London Blackfriars suffered
20 minute delays at the height of the morning peak due to a broken down
train near Bedford.

A
signalling problem caused delays of up to 30 minutes for Greater Anglia trains
from Walton-on-the-Naze via Colchester into Liverpool Street,

On
the Tube there were minor delays to District line services between
Dagenham East and Upminster due to signal failure at Dagenham East.